Duties
by OkashiraShinomori
Summary: A short story detailing the early morning duties and forces that prevent their completion that Florina performs as a member of Lyndis' Legions. Shoujoai. LynFlorina


_Disclaimer: I do not, and likely never will, own any part of the Fire Emblem franchise, and thus claim nothing in this to be mine aside from the plot (if you can call it that). Don't sue because you'll only inherit my student loans._

_Author's Note: This is an extremely short story I did for my creative writing class in college, and I couldn't resist the urge to post it. I plan to write more at some point, just don't' know when that is._

**Duties**

She went about her duties obediently, a cheerful smile on her face that would belie the monotonous nature of what they were. Lyndis was, technically, her commanding officer and liege, though it was rare for the Lady of Caelin to treat her like that. More often it was she, Florina, who had to remind the higher ranking young woman of where their class differences lay, a most odd reversal of the usual circumstances. They both were, however, happy with the arrangement, and if ever there was a complaint it was normally brought forth by Lyn, to which Florina would respond with but a giggle and a corrective shaking of one finger.

This morning was like every other, and of their small band she was the first to rise. More so than either Cavalier, she had an affinity for their animals that sprang from her own personal raising of Makar, her Pegasus, that had seemed to extend to most other hoofed animals. The horses were happy to be tended by her and taken to whatever stream it was they had camped near to drink and graze for a bit on sweet grasses. Afterwards she would find herself as she did now before Lyndis' tent, unhappy with the only part of her duties that she simply wasn't fond of. It was time to wake her commander.

With a small sigh, quickly swept away by the winds of the plains, Florina pushed aside the flap of Lyndis' tent, stepping inside and looking about, finding its arrangement to be the same as ever, no matter how often they had to pack up, move, and repack. And to think, Lyndis had never struck her as the particularly organized sort. Her eyes eventually found their way to the only randomly situated lump on the ground in the middle of the tent, as if it had been a goal she were avoiding, and a small smile flitted across her lips.

The Lady Lyndis lay, as usual, beneath the scant covering of one thin blanket, blue-black hair fanned out around her, free of its usual ponytail. It would take a half-hour's grudging brushing to straighten it to its usual form, a practice which Lyndis found little use for but that Florina encouraged, taking up the task most happily for her superior. One arm was splayed randomly to her side, and the other lay across her stomach, holding the light blanket in place as she slept. Not far from her, resting on her only pillow, was her sword, within hand's reach if it were needed.

Florina paid it no mind and instead strode over to Lyndis' side, kneeling down and gently pressing a hand to her shoulder, giving her a small shake. "Lady Lyndis, it's morning." She giggled quietly. "And a little later than usual, sleepyhead."

Only a groan evidenced that she'd been heard at all, and as Florina prepared to give her shoulder a second shake, Lyn's hand, once upon her stomach, came up to gently push Florina's away. With a second groan, almost as if to mimic the sound that her now stiff muscles must surely be making, Lyndis sat up, twisting her neck this way and that to get the kinks out of it. Sleeping without a pillow certainly made travel easier, but there were certain pains associated with it.

She folded her hands in her lap, the blanket falling down to obscure them, and merely sat there for a moment, eyes closed and looking for all the world as if she were as likely to fall back over and sleep as she was to open her eyes and try to focus on something. "Are the horses taken care of?" she asked, squeezing her eyes shut tightly before opening them, blinking repeatedly to ward off those last dregs of sleep. They shone already, even as early as it was, and held a clarity that only those born to the Sacaean Plains knew.

She didn't wait for an answer, and Florina didn't offer one, though she remained kneeling until Lyndis had stood, the blanket dropping away, and began to pull her usual tunic on. With a light blush, Florina kept her gaze elsewhere. "Is anyone else up yet?" she continued, wrenching her sword belt around her waist, the empty scabbard banging against her shin in its unwillingness to cooperate. Still unbound, her hair was entangling itself around the scabbard and between her body and the belt in a way that would prove most uncomfortable, and Florina rose without a word to tug the strands free. Like some sort of strange foreign cloth, the other young woman's hair was strong and yet soft, holding some semblance of luster even in the relatively dark tent.

"Just Makar and the horses," Florina answered, her eyes darting about the tent for the short ribbon usually used to bind Lyndis' hair into its normal pony tail. _It has to be here somewhere..._ Almost as it did daily, she considered chiding her Lady as to the logic of putting something used daily in the exact same location daily, for easy retrieval, but again pushed it away, the same small smile of earlier flitting across her lips. She could do it with all the other items spread across her tent, Florina had come to understand it to be a game of sorts, trying to figure out where the swordswoman had hidden the bit of cloth _this_ time. It wasn't always easy, but that meant just a little more time alone together, and Florina wasn't about to argue that.

Upon finding the elusive little ribbon, Florina gathered the other girl's hair up into a single thick length, and with skill born of much practice tied the blue cloth around it, jerking the ends tight to ensure that it wouldn't escape, even if they were to find combat again today. Raids by bandits hadn't seemed to have lessened since their last visit to the plains, and they no longer had the advantage of knowing the territory quite so well. Even on the plains, things changed over the span of even a few years.

Satisfied that the tugging on her head had ceased permanently, Lyndis turned around to face Florina and smiled, a sort of soft smile, lacking the usual forced encouragement she gave the other members of her little entourage and leaned in towards her.

A blush similar to, but darker than, the one of earlier lit Florina's face, and she turned to the side just enough that Lyn's lips merely brushed her cheek. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath before turning back to face Lyndis, smiling a little sadly up into her frowning face. "Please Lyn...Lady Lyndis...don't make this harder than it is..."

Her frown deepening, Lyndis quelled the urge to reach out and tuck an errant strand of lilac hair behind one of Florina's ears and nodded. They'd gone over this time and again, but Florina was adamant. Lyndis had rank and dominion over the younger girl, and Florina wasn't about to let their own feelings get in the way of what was proper to their station. But the powers be dammed, it didn't make sense to Lyn why, if she were the one in charge, she couldn't say to throw all those stupid rules aside. But then, she was still knew to the concept of being "Lady of Caelin," and wasn't quite sure what kind of an uprising in the ranks that might cause. She sighed. "I'm sorry, Florina."

As they did every morning, Lyndis turned on her heel and started towards the entrance of the tent, leaning to grab her sword from where it lay and slipping it into its sheath, Florina one step behind and to her right.

_Author's Notes: Finally, I wanna say I'm totally not for leaving this couple as apart like this. If I write any more, even if it's not directly connected with this at all, it totally won't be like this at the end. . . _

_Please criticize, no matter how harsh!_


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